Laramie County Fire District No. 5 assistant chief Bryan Cushing, left, and LCFD5 safety officer Nick Long work to clear waste.

At approximately 5:45 p.m. Sunday night, firefighters with Laramie County Fire District 5 were dispatched to a structure fire in the 5900 block of County Road 210, the home of Pine Bluffs resident Lee Yeik.

Almost immediately upon arriving on scene and making his initial review of the situation, LCFD5 Captain Derek Walls requested assistance from LCFD 4 and 6 (Carpenter and Burns areas).

According to Yeik, the fire began when he tried to light the pilot on his furnace in the basement resulting in a massive fireball engulfing the downstairs area.

Yeik was able to get himself, his wife, Judy Reed and their dog, Rufus out of the home without any injuries.

Heavy smoke plumed from the building as firefighters of the district made their initial attack on the fire. The smoke-filled basement made entry into the home extremely difficult as team after team of two firefighters made their way into the house to extinguish the flames.

"It’s nearly impossible to see down there," said LCFD5 firefighter Eric Verplancke as he wiped grime and condensation from his facemask after coming back up from the basement. At one point while working the fire, Verplancke and the

firefighter with him became separated. A few harrowing seconds passed before the two firefighters synched back up and made their exit, the dense smoke and pitch black darkness making it nearly impossible to see even when right next to each other.

Like several of the firefighters that night, Verplancke went inside several times, coming back up to catch his breath, change his air tank and get ready to go back in.

With firefighters working the basement through a side door, Walls found a window where he was able to deliver water to the fire, helping to put the blaze out.

After a couple hours of fighting the fire and with air tanks running low, Walls made the decision to call in Wyoming Air National Guard services based at F.E. Warren Air Force Base and LCFD1.

"We were running low on our air tanks — the air guard has the capability to refill extinguished air tanks and we knew we were going to need the assistance of District 1 on overhaul operations," said Walls.

As part of Standard Operating Proceedures, once the principal fire has been knocked down, firefighters move into overhaul operations, making sure that nothing else in the structure is likely to burn.

All told, the five different departments spent nearly five hours putting out the blaze. As LCFD5 wrapped up and began preparing to return to station, Yeik assured members of the department he had somewhere to stay and was already working on getting a permanent residence again.

With the assistance of the firefighters, Yeik was able to grab a few belongings from the heavily smoke-damaged upper floor.

"I’m not sure if the house is a total loss but the smoke damage is fairly extensive," said LCFD5 chief Tim Ginter.

An account is being set up at Farmers State Bank in Pine Bluffs for those wishing to make monetary donations to assist the family in this time of need.